Forex Trading in India – Legal or Illegal – A Critical Analysis

I requested Aalma Edwards(Finanical Blogger) to analyze and present a case study on Overseas Forex trading from India and its legality in India. Here is her first guest report over forex trading in india.

In India, Foreign Exchange or Forex trading is not allowed. If someone is found trading Forex instruments on the forex market by the Reserve Bank of India’s representatives, he/she is immediatelycharged of violation of law. Hence it is legally a crime to involve in Forex trading and the chargesof the crime areimprisonmentin jail in this country. Theoffence is considered immense, the prediction of intensity can be deduced from this fact that it has been labeled to be non-bailable.

However it is legal to trade forex with Indian Exchanges like NSE, BSE, MCX-SX where they currently offer 4 pairs(USDINR, JPYINR, GBPINR, EURINR) in Derivatives (Futures and Options Segment). So if you are trading with Indian Brokers whom have membership with the above mentioned Indian Exchanges it is perfectly legal.

And Also it is perfectly legal for Indian Retail traders to invest in overseas equity markets. But margin trading in overseas is suppose to be illegal as per RBI regulation guidelines.

Evidences of the Issueof illegality of Forex Trading

Thisis a confirmed finding based on a news report published in Indian Times, in April 2011. As per the report the author narrated that the illegal nature of forex trading has been confirmed by five private sector and public sector banks.

Forex Trading and Corporations

The reports issued by the banks on this evidences also said that only corporations are allowed to trade but the conditionality for the corporations is to use only free dollars from their reserves. Free dollars usage means that they are not allowed to convert the Indian currency to dollars and then use those converted dollars for trading. Moreover they are conditioned to stick to a leverage of less than ten times.

Forex Trading and Individual Traders:Reports of RBI

Individualsare strictly forbidden from electronic and internet based foreign trading. The reason being it brings high returns to them but at high charges-the imprisonment charges. The individual traders at India have also been warned by the RBI against the online trading portals which offer these alluring outcomesof high gains but do not reveal to the traders that they are trapping themselves in an illegal activity considered by their state.

RBI also published a circular that reported certain agents who contacted the traders and urged them to invest in forex trading to earn huge profits. In this retrospective many of the individuals became trapped to this illegal dealing. Moreovermost of the trading done trough theseinternet portals had a very huge leverage.

An additional finding revealed by the RBI was that the public was asked to pay these marginal payments for the trading transactions through their bank account deposits or debit cards. And then the accounts to which the money was being paid were of the same agent but they were opened in many different banks. Therefore the RBI issued a special instruction to the commercial banks of the country to be very careful in sorting out such accounts.

RBi clarified that if any such person is caught, then strict action would be taken against him/her under the FEMA, 1999, contraventions. In addition he/she would also be considered liable for violations of the KYC policy and money laundering standards. And all the transactions which have been declared non-permissible under FEMA are also not allowed. These transactions also include any transactions related to foreign currency, remittances marginal trading or exchanges.

Long Butterfly Spread – Amibroker AFL codeThe Long butterfly spread is a neutral strategy that is a combination of a bull spread and a bear spread. It is a limited profit, limited risk options strategy. There are 3 striking prices […]

Hourly Trends for Nifty – 23rd Jan 2008
Nifty Hourly shows a short term negative trend formation with intermediate support near 2620-2650 with respect to the time(remember it may vary with time). Be cautious […]

The Importance of BenchmarkingSelecting the right benchmarking technique and index can be critical for truly understanding your strategy success. In this post we benchmark the Sell in May strategy with the S&P 500 […]

About Rajandran

Rajandran is a Full time trader and founder of Marketcalls & Co-Founder of Traderscafe, trades mostly using discretionary Trading Concepts like Market Profile, Trading sentimental analysis, building timing models, algorithmic trading models. Instructs professional traders, full time traders & aspiring full time traders. Rajandran attended college in the Chennai where he earned a BE in Electronics and Communications. Rajandran has a broad understanding of trading softwares like Amibroker, Ninjatrader, Esignal, Metastock, Motivewave, Market Analyst(Optuma),Metatrader,Tradingivew,Python and understands individual needs of traders and investors utilizing a wide range of methodologies.

i called them, as you aid their words are not clear. also i know that you are also a forex trader. could you please share your way of approach in forex from india to me? if you see it’s difficult to tell in public comment, please send it to my mail id that i have provided….

Any one in India can trade in Forex provided by the authorized brokers in Indian stock exchanges. But their is only 4 currency pairs and the volatility of these currencies are too low. An Indian can trade with an International Forex brokers only he stays outside India and the law in that country permits him to do so.
Their are two types of Forex brokers one is Market Makers and the other one is ECN Brokers. A market maker gives you better spread and no commit ion but they have a dealing desk which will trade against you. But for an ECN broker they will charge commit ion and spread but they wont trade against you. Their are regulatory bodies in each country that regulates these brokers for example FINMA for Swiss brokers. So consult with these regulators and take a wise decision.

Rcently RBI has given a policy of Liberalised fudning -- upto 2.5 lk per annum. Can we trade in forex currency, If so who is best broker in India for the same. Please help in this regard -- send your details to my id
I have checked in the internet it is showing trading in foreign currency is illegal as far as RBI FEMA rules. Please let me know…

It comes under margin trading segment. Anything with comes under overseas margin trading segment it is illegal for Indians. However you can invest in stock markets but you cannot trade. More info about how to invest in overseas markets here.

If forex trading is illegal in INDIA thn why do the govnment and RBI not stopping the companies(of forex trading ) from opening offices in metros of the country . There are more than 100 offices of these sort of forex tradign onli in DELHI. Too much offices of such sort are there in bangalore mumbai etc.

Folks, all indian government hypocrisy. They want indians to remain poor and suffering always. Only ministers and politicians should have a filthy rich and lavish lifestyle. It is a damned country to be born in for ordinary folks.

You are right. If goverment cares so much about Indian people losing money then why do they allow lotteries ? Losing money to Indian companies/Goverment is fine but Indian public should not lose money to foreign companies ?

No doubt ! It’s a bane to be part of this country where individual freedom is not even bearing you $1000 at your own will without hurting anybody’s interest. I would suggest $ 5000 should be a free amount that any individual can use anyway he wishes other than illegal activities that can harm others. Capital outflow that way would be minimal and the freedom of action duly remain protected.

I have converted my trading account 541$ to 52000$. But when I submit my withdrawal request to my FX Broker, my account has been disabled by them, and they verbally deny my withdrawal request. Please suggest me what should I do ???

i’m trading in forex with “iforex” & “markets.com” now a days. Are these brokers Genuine.?
Shall i continue with it or shall i stop trading as people says it is illegal to trade in forex..?
Are there any Genuine online Forex brokers.?

Even Alpari the No.1 International Forex Broker had allowed Indian traders to trade only currency pairs like usd-inr, euro-inr, jp-inr and not international currencies in NSE NOW terminal because of RBI Restriction. This will give you clear idea why Forex Trading on International Currencies are illegal as per RBI guidelines.

only oversease intraday Trading is not allowed. U can trade in India with USD, YEN, EUR & GBP with paired with INR. See that the broker should have registered number with NSE & MCXSX. Presently there are many brokers like Alpari, Angel, CDEqui, NirmalBang are providing ODIN Terminal to Traders.

I just had a chat session with someone from a UK based forex broker. i inquired about the factor of legality on which he replied that they have people from INDIA trading in forex using their platform. Please explain.

hi,
i have doubt if a individual have dollars earned online,can he do trading with that?
because its not indian currency so if it lost or gain nothing happen to indian economy so please tell me this answer

I have been doing that since 2007. I earn online, invest with an online forex broker and so does it go on. I have lost a lot this way, coz it`s very addictive… But, i don` t think it`s illegal to invest your online money in trading, coz you are not touching the indian economy by any means.

@anindita,

Can`t agree more!. They want indians to be losers. This is why foreign countries don`t have any respect for indians.

such a stupid indian goverment… keeps trying to hold the poors as poor or even more poorer… what a kind of gov… only those ******g politicians bulge their swiss account… and makes laks of crores of scams… nuts..

its confusing i made my life from forex at age of 20 from 50 usd acc in etoro ( which is to be licensed by rbi) and after 3 motnhs of lossses and then studying it made 10,000$ and currently abt average 3000$ a month what i dont understand is if it is illegal i dont see anyone getting caught or banks stopping us from using tht site and a lot of people do it wtf it their problem with forex thts why india sucks like rotten eggs once i will have 50k i will leeave this shit country that stinks like rotten eggs. one thing we all can do is abt 1 lakh people maybe do it all can unite if they try to say its illegal and do some action against us so dnt think it is really illegal we arent killing od disturbing someone. Someone kickk indian foreign ministers asss

I am in big trouble because of this forex trading. I had paid to iForex.com to start my account 3000Rs last year through my Citibank account. Now Citibank is closing my account stating that it is illegal and against FEMA rules therefore Citibank is closing the account forever. I never made any money from iForex due to less time and I started that just for learning purpose….Donno what to do now. Can anyone please help ?

Even the States ,I mean America have restrictions on forex trades, this I knew only recently, and it seems that
the MT Platform has taken a ride for all small agents to start forex trade agency most of them not in legal control( do check and will be surprised), It becomes a real shot in the arm when it comes to withdrawal, another trap is the bonus offered like $500 deposit get upto 100% bonus. If anyone does take that with the greed , then he is over to follow the hidden agenda of crossing the bonus level .CONCLUSION:………..
So you end up losing, SO do take care , we can make money in our stocks and mcx if you are deciplined
trader with a little fundamental,am sure Rajendran is doing ,all he can, for that.

Its very true scenario that forex bonus offering 20%,50%,100% are nothing but real traps genuine brokers never offer any such bonus offers. And recently this diwal 2012 one forex broker offered 1000$ as a bonus.

what the bloody hell is this democratic India or the BANANA REPUBLIC no i dont get it how can the rupee depreiciate when we buy so much of stuff from china and other countries that time is nt the rupee not depreciating. when i went to purchase my laptop the guy had advertised a differ price when i went there he said the $ rose so the price has gone up. what kind of non sense is this. they want us to keep are money here so they can rob it. And i am wondering why is nt Arvind kejirwal fighting for this and i am thinking wat did he do with 1.12 cr that he collected for the movement why do they need money for the movement in the 1st place. DID GANDHIJI EVER COLLECT ANY FUNDS FOR HIS MOVEMENTs THE ANSWER IS NO. These people are trying to make money also I just dont know where this will conclude.

Bro your question is half correct.U can ask why Arivind Kejriwal not questioning on this.Nothing wrong.But don’t say Gandhii never collected single penny for movements 🙂 Perhaps you might have never heard about Gandhiji Sticks which are sold at Rs X for bearing the expense of movement.Also he used to charge Rs Y from any one who seek his autographs( on those days many people including british officials are fond of getting his autographs) along with these those days many rich people used to donate money for the freedom movement else how do u think that Gandhiji used to travel in Car from town to town village to village through out the country? how do you think that he along with his fallowers are feed with food shelter etc? Movement doesnt mean that no money is required.For even movement money might be required.But what we need to look at is how that money is utlised.Gandhiji never misused the money so he became ideal person.But we have tocheck what Mr Arivind Kjriwal is doing.More over you have mentioned about china products right its people like us who give damn to this country.We are selfish ideats who ll elect unworthy people on caste/religion/money based and then cry for rest of years.Have you ever questioned any politician or govt employee for not doinf what he has to? No right? First we has to change then Country will change.If you want to eanr there are many ways need not to play with the currency.

ACTUALLY THIS GUY ROHAN IS RIGHT WHO EVER WROTE THIS POST DOES NOT KNOW ENGLISH OR HAS PROBLEM WITH UNDERSTANDING THE RBI NEVER SAID NOT TO TRADE ONLINE THEY ONLY SAID THAT NO TRADING IS TO BE DONE WITH THE RUPEE THAT IS IF YOU LOOK AT ANY FOREX PLATFORM THEY HAVE LOTS OF CURRENCIES ACCEPT THE RUPEE FOR INSTANCE THER IS NO RUP/USD OR RUP/EUR BUT THERE IS EUR/USD OR USD/JPY. WHAT THE RBI SAYS ANYONE FOUND TRYING TO BUY DOLLARS WITH THE RUPEE AND THEN TRYING TO SELL IT FOR PROFIT IS ILLEGAL ANY CURRENCY FOR THAT MATTER BECAUSE THEY FEEL THE RUPEE WILL DEPRICIATE ONLINE TRADING WITH OTHER CURRENCIES CAN BE DONE IF YOU FIND THE RIGHT TRADING PLATFORM OR COMPANY AND PROVIDED YOU PAY YOUR TAXES AND SHOW THE TRADES YOU MADE LEGALLY. THIS GUY WHO WROTE THIS IS PUTTING PEOPLE OF THE TRACK. MAYBE HE IS DOIN IT AND GETTING BIG MONEY AND DOES NT WANT OTHER S TO DO WELL TOO. TELL ME THEN HOW DO FOREX COMPANIES OPERATE AND DO THE SAME TRADING.

If purchasing DOLLAR with RUPEE and then selling for profit is illegal, then they allow trading in USD/INR, GBP/INR, EUR/INR pairs ? These pairs are allowed on many many exchanges such as NSE, MCX..and also allowed by brokers such as ICICI Direct, Sharekhan.

hey plz suggest me should i do this or not….?
i m trading…
but i m nt transferin my inr into usd legally…
i use some other havala services so govt cant keep an eye on it…
i mean i m doin funding in usd only.. !
so should i do this or not??

by the ablve conversation i think that there is no solid proof that we can trade in forex or cannot trade in forex, submit with a best proof, then are you saying that the the famous websites like…… Iforex.com,easyforex.com are cheating the indian people

Hi,
Can you please guide me to any online declaration where it is given that Forex trading is legal in India ? I am facing an issue here.Last year I opened a account with iForex(Its advertisement on Yahoo page flashes all the time). I paid 3000Rs to start the account.I made payment through my Citibank account. Now after 1 year Citibank calls me and says that forex trading is against FEMA rules and this is illegal and your account was detected to be doing this during audit therefore we are closing your citibank account( was running since last 5years). They also said I might never be allowed to open a account with them in future. I don’t understand if it was illegal why there was no warning whatsoever either from bank or iForex. I didn’t earn a penny from iForex because later on I didn’t get any time to learn trading. Please help if you have any idea on it.

Many Geninue International Brokers are there. But as per RBI rules even if you are parking your money with genuine brokers it is considered as illegal as marginal trading on international forex pairs and CFD’s are not allowed to trade legally in india

Hello,
I have a question. I am having forex trading accounts with different forex brokers. I joined those sites in Dec 2011. However I stopped forex trading almost 6 months ago. I never used my Credit card to make any deposit (Via Paypal/Moneybookers/Payza etc). I bought dollars from local exchangers. Now is it possible to close all those accounts? Can I request my broker to close my account & remove my ID proofs from their server?

Good to know that you are not trading in forex account. Unless you are not transferring any money via paypal/credit card/moneybookers then its fine. Its better to ensure that your accouts are closed and your ID proofs are removed from them.

Hi,
wht rbi says, dnt do trade like INR/USD OR USD/INR, Right ? !
is it fine if we do trade like USD/EUR, USD/GBP etc.. if both r illegal, then why the such broker get permisson to advrtise there company.
at yahoomail i always seen iforex.com and its very attractive.
why rbi r nt charged any Case on them, why they looking our indian people who trading and then charged on !
pehle compny ko hi rok do phir legal or illegal ki baat hi nh hoti !

My friend having an foreign account.
I transfer my money to that foreign account.
From that foreign account I Transfer money to trading broker.
Here iam trading to that account.
After making profit iam sending the profit money to that foreign account.
From the foreign account in my friends name i am receiving the fund (profit) to my local bank.
Is there any illegal in this thing.
If a question arises.. means…. my friend from abroad doing business as my partner and he is sending me the profits.

Ani-Money Laundering Law does not allow any Forex Brokers to accept Deposits/Withdrawals from third party. If you have forex account then your deposit and withdrawal method must be same with same name, address etc. details as per your forex account. If there is any miss match then forex broker reject deposit/withdrawal and may ask more proofs.

Hello, I started Forex in late 2012 and as i read this blog i got alert and decided to stop any more Forex trading…
I’ve been reading this blog for more than two weeks now….and during that period i did a lot of net search ..
Like me many have doubts and questions
Why??? Forex Trading is Illegal in India? And IF someone found doing this what is punishment. Reasons are :-
POLITICAL____
1) Indian Govt. and Politicians don’t want Indians to be International player and let them become rich viz. a part time job.
2) Indian Govt. will not get benefit out of it..like in share market you make profit or loss Govt. get its share.
3) It’ll expose black money of Politicians, as INR market will get wider exposer in international market.
4) More people would like to get involve in Forex than share or Indian complex trading.
ECONOMICAL____
1)India is still a POOR country…and RBI can not afford to lose(outflow) money(INR) or transfer money to richer.
2)Outflow of INR will result in loss of the value of INR, hence USD,EUR and other currencies will go strong in domestic market. e.g. Inflow or FDI(which you may know) of Foreign Currency will result in strength of INR.
PUNISHMENT___Forex Trading is 100% illegal in India by any manner or manipulation even thourgh foreign account, if someone found doing Forex Trading, under FEMA Act,1999 he might get in Jail, and the crime is non bailable.

My suggestion and also Rajandarn R suggestion is “Do not Trade in Forex till RBI gives green signal.” If you still trade, You’ll be safe till you are caught.

Thanks for your inputs KEN. Yes it is better to wait for clarity from RBI. More and more people are willing to trade 24x5 markets but the clarity and norms should comes from RBI to trade in international margin segments.

Trading will be illegal if you are trading in any margin segment outside india. Only few brokers are allowing people to invest in foriegn stocks and that too limited to Stocks only but not in margin trading segments. Anything other than that will be considered illegal unless RBI clarifies it.

For Retail traders trading in Indian cross currencies like USDINR, EURINR, JPYINR, GBPINR are legally allowed to trade in NSE and MCX Exchanges or any other currency exchange operating from india. If you are trading with some forex broker or with some other international broker in margin segment even with the above mentioned pairs then it would be considered as illegal as Margin trading with Forex Brokers are not legally allowed as per FEMA act.

Rajandran i am glad to see atleast someone trying to spread awareness amongst people i have a video which will probably clear many people doubts as to why they should nt do so plz if possible http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUxBImkcvaU spread this so tht people realize

sir , i want to know about iforex trading . and know about that what is llegal or what is illegal. i want to trade in forex. plz sir help me . my contact no is 8504989477 . if anybody help me plz contact.

Now that the funding is not allowed by RBI, lets not fund into margin account. But what about the bonus money which is offered by many brokers, even without investing a single cent we can work on forums and earn bonus money which can be used for trading. So, such kind of trading with bonus money shouldnt be of any problems isnt it.

Like i posted in one forum for three months and gathered some $300 posting bonus money which i traded and made good profits of $1000 and now am using this fund for getting regular income and make almost $1000 each month.

can anybody tell me wether IFOREX and XFOREX brokers are fraud or reliable????? because i opened my account with both these brokers 2 months back. and till now i lost 200 $ . but suddenly i read all the reviews about these brokers on google wherein people shared their bad experience with these brokers. now i am really scared wether to continue with trading or not?????

i have traded in forex called instaforex settled in Russia and i lost more than Rs.10.000 with currency pair (Eurusd, Eurjpy, usdjpy and gbpjpy) i had invested as many time by little little amount like $5, $10, through many modes.. till now i was unaware of RBI’s restrictions.. so now iam afraid of this…. i have stopped now forex trading.. please tell me what should i do now…?

ok… under scrutiny can they come to know, because i may use medium like paypal, alertpay or many other ways by ATM to deposits in forex and every such companies wont disclose information about their client or customer, and even i can use such medium to pay some charges of software, or for Ebooks or even for i may use it for using service charge to anybody outside of india and i think it is not illegal, than how they can know whether i used money for forex or for any charges using such medium…..

@dars
Hi. I just wish to inform people on this blog that Forex trading in India is only allowed with INR pairing and not any other pairing viz. EUR/USD, GBP/USD etc. I am saying this because I have worked in this particular field in India. The so called forex broker companies like alpari, Harvest or any other just take client’s money and park it in foreign banks. Nobody knows where the money is being utilised. If the RBI or the Indian bank comes to know that the money transffered is being used for CFD trading, these brokers will shrug off the responsibilty because they do not come under the Indian Law jurisdiction. Most of the people who are posting comments saying that it is legal or lucrative are employees of these dabba companies trying to lure in clients. I say this because I have seen such cases during my term with these companies. At the end of the day, the penalty for trading is completely upon the individual an not the so called brokers. Even in our office when some angry client used to threaten of a police action, the managers would tell that they are only a call center for these companies. BEWARE of ANY LUCRATIVE FOREX TRADING. Instead, If you want to invest/trade in currencies go with some established brokers like india infoline, Karvy, Indiabulls. etc, who trade in INR pairing only.

Sir I had invested in forex market few days ago from broker name iforex which has branch in Mumbai.their representative motivated me to invest and I invested 100 $ .With in one day my balance get zero.i think it’s a fruad company market regulated by them seif.sir I want to put a complaint over them .How can I do.i live in Bhubaneswar

Sir I had invested in forex market few days ago from broker name iforex which has branch in Mumbai.their representative motivated me to invest and I invested 100 $ .With in one day my balance get zero.i think it’s a fruad company market regulated by them seif.sir I want to put a complaint over them .How can I do.i live in Bhubaneswar

dont worry rajandran…….do you know that even today broker’s like etoro and many more are having more than 40% of indian traders and then online payment processor like paypal and alertpay transaction are suspended till now because it hold virtual currencies and there is no strong bond or contract is signed between RBI and these processors ..and there is no limitations to use them ..RBI just want to mention that they dont have any kind of guarentee against them……and then you can also do forex trading through LR and then using currency exchanger…..like e-forex gold…..and many more….and last thing…i want to say is that have you ever heared that a forex trader caught and putten in a jail for trading foreign currencies…….no no..if so just show me some proofs……dont worry friend be chill…its just our indian country who dont wants any of our indian trader to reach the level of rich….and dont worry of rbi …because using these payment processors is similar to hold savings account in swiss banks of those big politician’s…..if they could not take necessary actions against those greedy politicians even after knowing that they are having billions of money….in their swiss account then how could they know about us…and also how much traders will get caught by trading forex….5 ,10,50,500, or 1000 but friend in india even today there are nearly ten thousands traders are trading forex…..i bet none of them are putten into jail ……….the RBI have released these rules from past 3 to 4 years ……….they just frightened all the forex trader’s and they could do nothing…..just wait and watch that in coming 2 to 3 years forex trading will be permitted in india legally………..

Hey Rajiv, thanks for the comment,
I was also thinking about the same, lots of traders are trading in forex in india,
so many forex training centers in india!!!!
so why they did not suffer any consequences?

Hi Rajiv, are you aware of any good, reputable and transparent ECN FX broker, for LIVE trading, from India? Account size $5-10k. I`m only interested in opting for an ECN account, b`coz of the many fraudulent ways adopted by dishonest STP/ market making brokers.

Hi,
Though it is illegal, there are many forex traders here and they are getting their withdrawals regularly to their bank account. Recognized forex brokers are splitting the withdrawal amount for Ex(100$ = 30$+30$+20$+30$) and returning the same to the traders bank account. These minimal transactions are very hard for the OTGP to find out and track. Since the buying and selling market is now very much global lakhs of people in india are now buying and selling products globally simply sitting in their home. So how do RBI or SEBI can check and verify the nature of every payments. And also it was clearly mentions that impact of intensity of the money involved will lead to imprisonment and also chances for non bailable. Under FEMA 1999 act, any violations upon these act, first government shuld send a prior notice to the concerned person if the impace is low.But to my surprise IPL franchisee Rajasthan Royals stack holders have been given notice for the violation of FEMA act and they have penalised for 93.5 crores and given 45 days notice perod to pay the penalty. Then think how much crores Rajasthan Royals must have laundered. But for that amount itself there had been no imprisonment only notice has been issued. Forex trading is not permitted for Indian individuals is also coming under the same FEMA act 1999. So guys finally notice or imprisonment i personally decided to stop trading until RBI gives some good news on Forex Trading.

Note that using torrent is not illegal . Torrent is a just a software which helps in downloading things . If you download legal things then you can use torrent openly in any country of the world . But if you download illegal things then problem pops up . Read torrentfreak.com for news of the torrent world .
It should be noted that an user is sued for using torrents if any software / music / movie company or alike complains against him / her . Now in India the things that are downloaded are mostly created by foreigners . One hardly downloads a Indian made software form torrent . So who will sue them . Foreigners can’t even stop illegal downloads in their own country . So it is not possible for them to come here to sue them .

But for forex the thing is different . RBI is there , who resides in India , to sue us .

As I understand, in India, if you are a big shot with big money, you can get away with murder, not just violation of FEMA. Rajasthan Royals is big money and they can bribe RBI, but small traders like us can’t afford to bribe RBI. So, I stay away from FOREX. Till it gets legalised in India. It is still in the grey zone.

Dear Anna,
My Name is Boobalan….I want to work in forex trading please help me I want money for my operation this month last. I want $15000 around in Indian rupee 8,00,000..please help me are give any idea how to make money…my family is very poor in finance please help me….my friends say lot of forex trading website but I don’t know how this much money I got in forex if any one you know means please tell anna…

Hi I made a payment in stockpair.com today but by reading your website I immediately withdrew my all money from it. But I am not finding any options which can close my account. What to do? I spent $200 and do not want to come under violation 🙁 🙁 🙁

Here is the perfect scenario.
1) INR is not fully convertible, hence except for INR pairs, trading forex in other pairs is illegal in India
2) Unfortunately the pairs with INR do not provide much liquidity, hence trading in these pairs is extremely difficult as well as losing
3) Brokers (except Alpari) who have registered with SEBI, do not provide MT4 platform, which is being used by pro forex traders all over the world
4) Brokers , who are providing mt4 platform, do not have SEBI registration/NSE registartion, hence they do not come under the purview of SEBI
5) Hence if you trade with non registered broker, and in pairs those are not allowed in India, the result is obvious, either you end up in jail, or broker eats away your money, and you can not go to court or SEBI against the broker, as you your self is engaged in illegal activities, which is well aware to the brokers.
6) As far as govt is concerned, yes they want Indians to remain poor, otherwise, I want to invest my hard earned money anywhere, unke baap ka kya jata hai.
7) I am seriously doubtful of the intention of the govt, as they don’t act when all these money laundering goes on, when all kind of scamsters open their offices in big metroplois, with the blessing of the high and mighty politicians. When it is time to refund money to public, all of a sudden govt, comes into action and bans these companies. They don’t even try to refund the money of the people by selling the assets of the company. take the case of Sharda group, where it is heard that chidambaram’s wife was also involved.
Hence all these points to one fact that govt has found a new way to rob people by creating this sort of companies and collecting money thro’ them.

I just have one question -- 3 years back i was in US on L1 visa and has got SSN as well as bank account (that is still active). My question is , can i open forex account in US with the help of my US bank account and SSN ? (My US account will be funded by my relatives and not by me).

If i will have any profit , my relatives can transfer that amount from my bank account to India as “gift” …I will also be filing returns in US….

is it legal to trade in this way by sitting in India and doing forex trading in US with my international bank account 🙂 anyways there will be no remittance from my side to my bank account…hopefully RBI should be ok with this 🙂

RBI wont knock your door for investing few hundred or thousand dollars. If someone wants to play it safe.then ask any of your NRI cousins or friends to open an trading account in their name.You can trade that account and if you manage to make any money,they can transfer the money to your account. Before thinking too much,see if you can make any money on demo.If yes,go for a micro account.

brother yes,
india has many issues than a common man issue they will not take it serious ,they are not taking any thing serious ,they will take it serious when most of them starting to invest in forexes

There are many brokers where you don’t have to invest a single cent. Still you can earn a good profit from them. Take Instaforex for example. You get money for forum posting in your instaforex account and you can trade through it. If one lose money then he / she is losing the labour only. Not even a single paisa is taken.

I don’t know why RBI is making this type of trading illegal. If I make profit then this will bring money to India and the Indians will be benefited . They why RBI is stopping us ?

Because International forex trading is not regularized so far for Retail clients. And no STT, Education and Cess tax are not involved in international forex/CFD trading. And anything that is not regularized and retail participants are playing in such segments are termed as illegal in india.

So the problem is tax. If RBI wishes then the solution is very easy . Just make it mandatory that every Indian Forex trader should open a particular type of account in a bank . And a percentage of the earnings will be cut off as tax . Also make the rule in this way : If any Indian wishes to withdraw money , then he / she has to withdraw through that bank account only . Withdrawal in other bank accounts is illegal .

If RBI implements this then government also can earn a good amount as tax from Forex trading and Indians also can earn money .

@boral, I completely agree with you. Just tax forex investors and make it legal.
It is all Indian legal system stupidity and hypocrisy. Alcohol is prohibited in Gujarat. Have ppl stopped drinking? No way. It is all underground. For a premium you can get whatever brand and as much as you want. And the stupid govt. is losing out on tax revenue.
Similarly sex-workers. Sensible countries have legalised both and tax both.

As I see it keeping forex trade illegal is just the bully mentality of the ruling class of India.
While the ruling political class exists only to start and support scams (latest Sharada scam), it is us ordinary folks who are always victimised. Such a bull shit nation!!

Yes if you would had traded in International forex market it is FEMA violation. But still if you are trading in such segments better avoid as it is unregulated segment so far by RBI similar to cricket betting.

i have been trading in forex for more than one year and so far have not faced any difficulty and will continue trading in forex, we all know about our government which does nothing good for a common man and they want only common man to follow the rules so why should we follow these foolish rules which has no relation with our country’s economy or related in any other way????????

Harry , can you say how you withdraw your money . Because this is the only place where RBI can catch us .

Anindita , you can try Instaforex . Minimum deposit is $ 1 . But remember that you have to cashout through that payment processors through which you have invested most .
But you can trade on Instaforex even without any initial deposit . Join nigeria-forex.com , post good posts there . They gives $ 0.20 per quality post . Open an Instaforex account through the forum affiliate link [ check forum’s tutorial for that ] and attach it to forum profile . Bonus accumulated this month will be given in the Instaforex account the next month . You cannot withdraw the bonus but if you can make profit then you can withdraw the profit without any limitation. Remember never spam the forum and never copy paste post . They will ban you if these rules are violated .

Instaforex is a good broker and there is no doubt in that . But the main problem is how to withdraw the profit without being caught by RBI . There is an option called Instaforex mastercard . But I don’t know how to use it .

Harry , please tell how to withdraw the profit legally . Also please say how much you withdraw per month ?

There is a lot of bad blood discussions here on Forex trading unfortunately.

First of all, RBI or the Indian Government is not in the business of stopping Indians from making genuine money.

The RBI is just trying to protect us from falling prey to scams which claim unrealistic returns.

But note that, all genuine International Forex brokers do have a clear disclaimer policy which talks about the risk involved in trading Forex.

The risk of Trading Forex is very similar to the risk of Trading Stocks in the Futures market they work on the same margin and leverage concept.

Every country including India has it. In India Futures trading on Stocks is Both traded on NSE and BSE.

The only thing RBI is concerned is to protect the money out flow and in flow in illegal routes.

So as long as you make and receive payments through your local banks account and Credit/ Debit Cards it is perfectly legal.

Now note that RBI warning is in the interest of common people to protect them selves from unreasonable claims.

Forex trading is like stock trading and if you are not managing your risk properly you are bound to lose money.

Unfortunately, since over 90% of people who get involved in trading lose money due to lack of disciplined trading skills, a small segment of those failed people refuse to take the blame on themselves and spread all bad vibes over the internet like blaming Forex trading on the whole or Forex brokers etc.

If you do a bit of research on Forex Brokers site, no genuine FX Broker will claim guaranteed profits or returns whether small or big.

Simply, because it is just not possible to claim any guarantee in online trading, whether you are trading forex, stocks or commodities.

Every participants from small individuals to big institutions are all equally entitled to the same risk.

And every one whether big or small will make money or lose money in trading.

Note that, RBI or the Indian Government are not foolish.

They are aware of whats happening in the cyber space inch by inch.

If RBI or the Indian Government thinks Forex trading illegal, you will not be seeing those Forex trading platforms and sites in India and you will not be seeing a host of Forex trading advertisements and links in search engines like Google in India.

If RBI or the Indian Government think forex trading is illegal they would have stopped it appearing and accessible from India by blocking those sites in just one second.

So don’t ever think that RBI or the Indian Government are foolish and they are not aware of whats happening in the world of Forex trading both in India and around the world.

If you still think that Forex trading is Illegal in India.

You should be in fools paradise, thinking that RBI and the Indian Government are blinded to all this. If they want to stop they will not issue it on circulars, they will stop your access to it from India.

Forex trading is the largest financial market in the world and it has a volume of over 4 trillion dollars per day, the world economy will collapse if Forex trading is deemed to be illegal.

Foreign Exchange is a critical life blood to Any countries Financial Economy and India is no different. And you can be rest assured that no country will curb on Forex trading. The only issue is the route you will be taking to access them. As long are you take the legal payment processing systems in Forex trading, you will be safe for ever.

So, if you think Forex trading works for you than go for it. Its perfectly legal as long as you have the access to do it legally with legitimate payment processes both in and out of your bank account.

Also note that If you happen to make profit from trading Forex with a genuine international Forex Broker you are bound to pay Income tax of 20% to 30% or more based on your Income slab when the money hits you local bank account in India.

The confidence with which you are saying that Forex trading is legal if we pay the proper taxes brings good blood to my veins . I have some questions .

1) Have you withdrawn your profit to your local bank ? If yes please share which forex broker you are using any which payment processor are you using .

2) Also please say what you have filled up in the form while giving tax. Have you filled up Forex trading as a source of income ?

I partly agree with what you have said . But I don’t think that RBI will even let anyone go if they give proper taxes . I think all of us discussing here are ready to give taxes , but not want to be sued by RBI . So I think the problem that is holding us behind is not tax , but the fear that RBI can sue us and it is clearly declared in RBI website that under FEMA Act of 2011 , Forex trading is illegal .
However if you have found out that forex can be traded legally here if we pay the proper taxes then please guide us . We all will be grateful to you . Thanks in advance .

@Ram : You are good with your argument. But the fact is anything which is unregulated is considered as illegal. Recent Example is Sports betting in India is considered as illegal. I guess you would agree. Running casino in most of the states in india is considered as illegal. Likely International Forex trading and CFD trading, Spread Betting, Binary Trading is considered as illegal as these segments are considered as unregulated marekts as per RBI and SEBI.

Even if the broker is genuine trading with such brokers are considered as illegal. Alpari(one of the top FX broker) had opened their india few years back. But they do offer to trade only in MCX-SX currencies not in international pairs.

RBI has never said Forex Trading is illegal in its circulars. It only warns about Guaranteed high returns scams in online trading who try to make money differently in the name of online trading.

No one can simply draw conclusions on what RBI has not said.

Misleading interpretations and false gossips should be strictly avoided in a good discussion blogs like this.

No genuine Forex broker will offer “Guaranteed high returns”

Because it is not possible.

You invest your money, you open your trade positions and you close your trade positions for a profit or loss, and you are free to take your money out to your local bank account whenever you want.

Where is the question of Guaranteed high returns (When you are 100% in control of your actions)

Forex trading is just like stock trading in derivative markets (Futures & Options) with margin and leverage.

You are bound to lose or make money based on your skill level.

Its not a Hawala racket of currency exchange which happens in the back channels to be deemed as illegal.

If you want to trade USD INR / EUR INR / GDP / INR you can legally do it in brokarage firms like Kotak Securities and many others.

And if you want to trade USD or other currencies against each other apart from INR you can trade them legally through genuine international brokers.

Forex trading is not a walk in the park to make quick money. It is a professional system in which the whole world’s Import, Exports and all trade set ups are based upon.

Also note that, RBI can’t do policy changes on its own even if it start to think forex trading is illegal one fine day.

They need to have a solid backing to the claim and the ruling and the opposition political parties have to back it up.

And in spite of all this, the Supreme court can intervene and question the RBI intention if it finds to be unjustifiable.

Moreover note that in India, Most Political parties including the big one’s like the Congress and the BJP are largely in favor of online trading except the left parties who have some conditional oppositions,

Above all, everyone including newbies who gets involved in any financial markets know that there are millions and millions of people who are doing online trading in stocks, forex and commodity markets both locally and internationally.

It is only a joke if any one happens to even think that RBI does not know this, on what even an average common man in India knows.

RBI is not an enemy to Indians, in fact it is a body to help Indians to keep things in order and to facilitate the growth and safety of every Indian.

Note that it is not RBI who dictates Indian citizens -- It is Indians who dictate what RBI has to do ultimately.

India is democratic and it is for the people and by the people.

If people of India wants it, RBI has to do it,

If not the few officials who involve in stopping it for personal gains will be thrown off eventually either by the government or by the supreme court or by the people of India.

Forex trading is Just about buying and selling currency, which is just as any normally traded item.

You are not trading items as illegal drugs or smuggling illegal explosives here.

So where is the question of illegality comes here?

Even RBI does foreign exchange, so why not individuals should not do it in the fair open market route.

Trading stocks, currencies and commodity is not a sin.

If no one trades, there will be no liquidity in the market. And where will even RBI do its own Foreign Exchange.

There will be no one to buy and no one to sell if they curb trading unfairly.

The argument of specific regulation will not hold here. Since the Online trading is a new kid on the block with just few years old (Open to General Public World Wide) And regulations in India dates back to decades and decades backwards.

And every Indian knows how the policy decision, updates and amendment processes work in India. And long it will take to do it in India. (It May be days, months, years, decades, or centuries or even never! (in some cases))

Some people have also said that forex trading is not done in US here in this discussion.

This is totally wrong.

There is a whole list of big Forex trading Brokers where US clients do Forex trading. For example take the case of citifxpro.com -- this is under one of the world largest banks, Citi group.

Does few people who are against Forex trading mean to say that Citi is facilitating illegal activities right under the nose of US government?

Take the case of FXCM, which does a trading volume of over 350 billion dollars per month

It is a NYSE ( New York Stock Exchange) listed company.

Can a company who’s sole activity is about Forex trading, be deemed as illegal and still get listed in the world prestigious stock exchange?

Even in the case of etoro there is a separate site for US clients which is regulated specially for US citizens. You can check the etoro US website for more details.

There is also a group of people who talk about bonus offerings in Forex trading is bad.

Note that no Forex broker forces you to take a bonus or force you to take high leverage.

It its you who are in control.

Genuine Forex brokers make there money by commissions, if you make lot of trades they end up getting more money by way of more commissions.

So with big bonus offers they provoke you to do more trades.

Note that this is not bad for you.

In any case you are free to withdraw your initial amounts any time. And those who have limited capital can make use of it.

Again your Money management, Risk and Reward is the key here.

If you can mange it well then there is no stopping for you legally in India.

Ram , I am mailed RBI has received a clear statement from them that forex trading is illegal in India. They are not a law enforcement so they will not chase people. However if a complaint is made against a specific person they can take action. you logic is more on why it should not be illegal rather than what is the current situation and I dare say it is a quite misleading to people

Let me make this very clear, any brokerage that offers you a bonus is a scam. think about it, if you open a bank account will the bank give you 100% of what you deposit for free?

Think about why they offering this..

Forex is a highly leveraged trading product and not many people know what they are doing and most brokers offering these promotions know this. so they offer you the bonus with conditions attached.

For example you have to trade at least 100 times to withdraw any balance. They know the probability of a retail trader to lose in 100 trades is high and in most cases when they see you are a loser, they don’t put your trades through to the liquidity provider and keep the profits.

and say you know what you doing, if you keep winning the broker will not let you withdraw the money!.

I am a former FCA trader and worked for many of these brokerages so i know how they operate..

My advise would be to use companies registered and authorised to trade by the BEST regulators FCA or NFA.. stay away from unregulated brokers that can shut down tomorrow as everything they own is rented.

I would say brokers like FXCM, City Credit Capital, Gain FX who are listed companies or about to be listed and offer correct pricing that is transparent. no slippages and no trading against clients.

Hi Sanj , you are the first one here who declared openly that he / she is a trader . Can you please share us more information about this .
The first question is which broker do you trade about and how do you withdraw bonus to your bank account ? Please give us a detailed guide . We will wait eagerly for that .

Hi Rajandran,
Nice article. Thanks for educating us about RBI’s POV.
Reading your article has put me in a dilemma. I am at the moment an NRI residing in Singapore since the last few years. In that time I have been successfully trading in foreign exchange. My husband has recently been offered a posting in India and we will be taking up the offer. We should be returning by September 2013.
My situation is that I have been very successful as a Pro Forex trader. And while I will not be remitting money outside India for my foreign exchange trading purposes, I wish to continue with my trading and, at the same time, hopefully remit my profits into India. What would be the legal repercussions for a situation like mine? Can I carry on trading with the capital I already have outside, in my own name, the country and bring money back in legally?
I would truly appreciate your feedback. Thanks.

My case is similar like you, earlier in singapore and now in india. Try opening an international current account and park your profits there and spend the money using the international bank debit card. i think this is purely legal as this is beyond jurisdiction of RBI.

Thanks for your reply Yogesh.
How’re you finding India after living in Singapore? Pros and cons I’m sure. Do let me know so I can mentally prepare myself.

The debit card idea is a nice one. However I have already declared my international assets to the IT dept this year as it has become mandatory so will have to declare it every year now. Besides RBI doesn’t allow residents to trade in Forex so trading in it may technically be illegal after I shift back to India.

I have also heard of an RFC account. Apparently NRIs returning home can maintain this account and park the funds they had abroad into this account. They can then transfer money abroad without restrictions from the RBI. Just not sure about the Forex investment bit. I’m guessing that the reason RBI wants people to stop Forex trading is because the money going out affects the value of the INR. Since the RFC account keeps the money in dollars and doesn’t convert, it could be the most legal way.

i have enquired to admiral markets. they have opened offices in indian cities which includes chennai, bangalore, mumbai, delhi. i just asked, is it legal or illegal doing forex trading here in india.
the answer. Individual can spend upto 200000$ / anum in any kind of foreign exchange.

let me see in any objectionable point in rbi circulars where they mentioned about illegal with draws if no deposit or remittance from india , this is absurd to say that forex is illegal , I read all stupid circulars keenly and I can say definitely remitting for forex trading is not allowed and you can not use credit card transfers too , but with draws from out side is not prohibitted from RBI if you didn’t make any deposit from here . trading forex through online portals with such kind of remitted money is absolutely illegal but if you have already trading account and you didn’t pay any thing from here , then no need to worry , you can trade and with draw easily with out any hurdle , RBI didn’t say any thing in this connection in their circulars , not even in any press release also .

Mr. Ram u wrote so many things about rbi ,govt, this and that, but u did not reply the main question asked ?If u r trading successfully kindly mention the deposit and withdrawl method u use .How did u first deposited the funds to the broker and after u started making big profits ( i m talking of more than 3-4000$ per month and not 2-300$ per month) how did u withdraw the money to ur bank ???If u will guide ppl here in that thing only this disccussion will be over and ppl will come to know a way of depositing and withdrawing the money without being caught by the rbi.
I and i m sure others will also be very grateful to u if u can do this

I dont think so… forex trading is illegal… I think its just normal rule that shows we cant convert big amount of physical INR money into other currency…
If you are traveling in US then your local bank ATM shows your money in $$$$ but its not illegal…

It is illegal to trade with them as there is no Tax involved. It is good to trade only with NSE and MCX exchanges. Anyways trading Indian CFD’s is illegal anyways with these FX brokers. You can use those tools only for analysis purpose but trading with them is purely considered as illegal actions as per RBI norms.

Hello all,
We all have been having this discussions about the legality of forex trading.
Some ppl say its legal some its not.

I think we all know the following things.

1- Forex trading is illegal in india , we cannot do it openly.

2- We all know many ppl from india are doing it and many traders who write here are also trading.

3- We all know that these traders know all the methods of deposits and withdrawls and know how to bypass
the rules of RBI.

4- Those traders who must be making good profits must have been providing a solid reason of this income to the income tax department every year coz they cannot tell that this income is from forex.

Rather than focussing or discussing its legality we should concentrate on the solution.

So its my big big request to all these traders to pls pls come forward and help ppl by guiding in
what to do ?
If these traders just tell what i did mention above ,the details of deposit withdrawl methods, what to say to
IT ppl,what reasons to give for every transaction etc etc.
i m quite sure everybody who has doubt about these things will b highly grateful to the seniors.
Pls all the senior members come fwd and help us.

You can bypass the problem of depositing money by a slow solution. Many brokers gives bonus for forum posting… such as Instaforex sponsors a number of forums. If you want to trade, join one of these forums , do forum posting for say 2 to 3 months. Gather a good deal of bonus and start your trade. Just remember that don’t break the forum rules, otherwise you will be banned.
Though this is not a good solution, still you can use it to start trading.

The main problem lies in withdrawal of bonus. I was thinking that these strategies may help to withdraw money. Though these will not work for big amounts at a time…. but still can be used. However to be honest I myself has not tested any one of them.

1) Cashout through one payment processor say moneybookers, then use a genuine exchanger to transfer the money to your paypal account . No one will know the source of income.

2) Open unverified paypal accounts with fake names and if possible using proxy. Gather money to this fake account . Transfer money to your original one. If asked just say that you are doing freelancer jobs to earn money. However this method is not a reliable one as it is not safe to use the same paypal account repeatedly.

3) Sell some books on different sites [ The books are just few pages written by you or gathered from the web ] . Give your original paypal email as an author. Now open fake paypal emails and buy your own books by paying through your fake paypal emails. If you have more than one fake paypal emails or if the site accepts different payment processors then it is an advantage. You can say that you are earning by selling books.

4) The best and the difficult way is to contact a foreigner to transfer money to your paypal email . Also say him that he should pretend as a freelancer job giver if any problem arises. The main problem in this method is that you have to find out a good and trusted foreigner who will do this job for you. There is a high chance that he / she just take your money and don’t transfer it to your email. But I think if you give a good amount of commission per transaction then he / she may not cheat.

I request others to discuss various other ways to withdraw money and you are also welcome to criticize the methods discussed above. I will like to hear them.

Thanks for the reply,
What i know about paypal is that rbi has put some limit on it for transactions .They nowdays ask for documentation and all.
I want to know what is ur view about moneybookers.They provide a gud amount for trasaction as a 90 day limit.
Can we transact large amount into our bank acccounts ??( i tried with a very small amount and it was done).
Can we tell to the IT guys that is freelance income?
if yes do we have to produce any documentation to show about the freelance income?

Yah, we have to turn into ‘criminals’ with fake identities to do an honest business in India in FOREX.
Way to go!

We must learn from our corrupt politicians how to get rich in a country that won’t even feed its under-privileged children who are dying everyday because of malnourishment, while our ministers spearhead a scam everyday!! Shameful India!!

@sunil
I don’t know whether we can transact large amounts to bank accounts. But I will suggest you not to do that. Transacting large amounts may draw attention of IT department. I don’t think that we need to provide any documents to show that we are doing freelance jobs.

@ Richa and Anindita Choudhury
You are right . We have to turn into criminals to do a honest and ‘harmless’ ( if one has no possibility to lose money ) business. Actually in order to withdraw profit in India, we have to keep in mind two things. One is we have to hide our original identity and the second one is we have to find a good source of income, which we may use to hide our forex profit and say that we earn money from that source. I think none of us, who read the article and comments here, want to cheat the government to hide the taxes ; but the government policy ( actually RBI ) is forcing us to do so. Even if we say to RBI that we haven’t invested a single paisa but we want to withdraw money from forex and want to pay tax, if required, then also the government will NOT accept it and we will find ourselves in jail with non-bailable offence.

I am in many forex forums and foreigners get surprised when they hear that forex trading is illegal in India. It is actually a very shameful thing that we have to turn into criminals to do a honest business.

Other methods which may allow to bypass the RBI are following :-

5) This is a modified form of point 3 in my previous comment.

Sell some books on different sites [ The books are just few pages written by you or gathered from the web ] . Give your original paypal email as an author. Open a forum / website to keep contact with your customers ( I will clarify later who are customers ) .

Suppose you have written a ebook which costs $ 50 . Now you have to gather foreigners who will buy your books. In reality no one will buy your useless books with their money. So give them $ 50 through say egopay / alertpay / webmoney / moneybookers etc. [ through that payment processor which is the most anonymous ] to buy the ebook . The money will be transferred to your bank account when the foreigner will buy the book. Now give the foreigner a commission, say $ 20 as he / she has bought your ebook . That is you give the foreigner $ 70 ( $ 50 to buy the book and $ 20 as a commission ). This method has a risk that the foreigner may take your $ 50 and never contact you. Yes it is possible . For that use this. Many ebooks selling sites stamps the buyer’s email address on the ebook to stop piracy. Sell a ebook of very low cost say $ 1 through above process. Ask the foreigner to give screenshot of that portion of the book which contains the stamped email. Keep that email address. Give the commission. Now sell high valued ebooks. In case a foreigner cheats you, blacklist his email address and don’t do business with him again. Note that paypal allows to open only one personal and one business email. So a foreigner cannot have more than 2 paypal address. So if you give good commissions, then the foreigner will not cheat unless he is super foolish.

6) You can use a similar method like this to get a freelancer job. In this method you will find a foreigner who will post fake freelancer jobs on freelancing sites. The foreigner will always select you to do the job. The foreigner will pay you to do the job. Actually you have to give the foreigner in advance the job fee . After you get the payment give some bonus to the foreigner.

In both cases maintain a free website / forum to keep contact with the customers. These processes seem to be very much legal. If you get more foreigners then the process will be more legal. Because they will pay you through different paypal address. But in case something goes wrong [ though it is least possible ] you can delete the website or forum to remove all details.

Note:- Many free hosting sites allows to host forums and websites. Search in google. In order to get such foreigners, give ads in Paid to click sites, ad networks etc. Also you can use forums to gather foreigners.

Criticize the methods freely. You are welcome. I request others to suggest other methods and/or to modify these methods.

Hello! I want to trade with fxcm and Want to deposit fund via debit card, but I came to know that forex trading is illegal in India, So can I transfer fund from debit card to fxcm. Is it safe or not?
Plz Help me.

@anilde
Sir what u r mentioning the ways to fund forex account by doing all sort of things .
Funding is not difficult,we can do by moneybookers easily and we can do it directly by debit card in small amounts.Problem arises when u make profit and u have to withdraw.
My question was can we withdraw large amounts.I m not talking of 20000$ per month lol!!!
i m just asking can we withdraw 500$ per week from moneybookers into our bank account?
since somebody mentioned that u do not need to show any documents for freelance income so we can show this as freelance income and pay the income tax.
Am i wrong in thinking this way?

@ sunil. Please read the posts carefully. All the ways that I have described are ways to withdraw forex profit, to your bank, through paypal, in a complicated way .

$ 500 per week means $ 2000 per month i.e. Rs. 1,20,000 [ $ 1 = Rs. 60 approx. ] is really a high ONLINE income per month . I don’t think that it will be a very wise thing to withdraw this amount per month in one bank account. You want to pay tax and earn a good amount of money . But I think that a better way will be NOT to pay tax and withdraw relatively low amount of money per month. I would prefer to withdraw $ 200 per MONTH not week. This will help us to play on the safe side. This is a small amount in relation to your expectations, but I think it will keep us away from trouble. Note that paying tax is not a good idea when your source of income is not legal. This is because IT department will keep an eye on you to see whether you are paying tax according to your income or not. So it is better to avoid IT dept.

However if you want to earn more, just withdraw your money to say egopay account. Use exchangers to transfer $ 200 to one bank account in your name, $ 200 in one of your family member’s name, another $ 200 in the name of another family member etc. If you divide the income, the IT department will hardly notice you. And don’t use freelancing as your only source of income. Also use diverse fields, like selling books, article writing etc. If possible do some article writing in reality. These are just to show that you are working hard to earn money online. Always remember that IT and tax dept. people are very clever . So just avoid them.

For more clarifications you can consult a good lawyer or a tax consultant. They can better guide you.

Forex trading in India by an individual is illegal, very well. But is there anyone who can tell why it is termed illegal in our country and what harm does it cause to our economy, society, culture or whatever?

Agree -- it is my hard earned income which i am willing to loose for 1000% profit if the trade clicks. Should not be risky for anyone. I would also like to understand why this is illegal in India when countries like US and UK do allow such things legally.

Thanks Rajandran,
But when word ” MARGIN” comes it impleis to two:
1. Margin from exchange (Like in derivatives etc)
2. Margin from broker (Like in forex, margin 1/10; 1/100)
If I am right on this then which kind of margin is banned.

I was not informed of same by Broker. I will check with them today as i read this article today and stop this if they are not ready to provide legal docs for same. But do i also need to inform RBI for same, that i was not aware of this . What consequences do i have now?

Read the article carefully. The article says trading in international currency parirs from FX brokers are purely illegal. However it is legal to trade EURO/INR, GBP/INR and JPY/INR in NSE and MCX-SX exchanges as permitted by Regulatory authorities SEBI & RBI.

hello friends if u want to do forex trading all major currency usd pairs like eur/usd,gbp/usd,usd/jpy,usd/chf,usd/cad,aud/usd and comodtties like silver and gold then u should obviously open account only in FSA regulated Broker (UK licenced) like xemarket,IG market etc etc ..because they will not scam your money 100% sure..
I think if u just follow these steps u can avoid RBI restriction

Buy USD from a genuine man u can find these people all around the india and Give him the INR as gift and bring USD to payment processor (like money brokers skrill,webmoney,perfect money,paypal and deposit to broker …. ex. if u want to deposit 200$ on forex broker just buy 200$ by giving the man 200*66=13200 INR as gift in bank a/c or you can do it face to face if its possible for you best way i think because Banks wiil not get informed if u sell hand to hand and then deposit 200$ to forex broker

For withdraw:

First transfer USD from broker to payment processor (like money mrokers skrill,webmoney,perfect money,paypal)
and sell the usd to that type of people who wana buy from you and you will get INR as gift just opposite of investing processs….Sell face to face if possible best way i think..Banks wiil not get informed if u sell hand to hand..

DO NOT USE CREDIT CARD FOR INVESTING
AND
DO NOT USE BANK WIRE TRANSFER FROM ELECTRONIC PAYMENT PROCESSOR TO UR LOCAL BANK FOR WITHDRAWING

I am glad to see so much interest in forex trading by my fellow Indians. I would like you all to explore an alternative safe way to earn from forex trading without violating RBI norms.

The alternative way that I am talking about is by becoming forex signal provider using demo accounts to these well-known signal providers: ZuluTrade, Currensee, Tradeo, Simpletrader, FXSTAT,etc. This involves no real money trading and your trades will be mirrored by thousands of fellow forex traders. You will earn based on your trading performance and popularity with subscribers. I have withdrawn money earned from providing signal sharing service & paid tax to Indian government.

hello bharat i know that FX trading is completely illegal in india and i was also thinking to do the same because now i can make very good returns can you please elaborate the method through which we can withdraw the money earned by providing signals at zulutrade etc to indian bank account without voilating any indian law .
mail me at 11gauravshukla@gmail.com

hi sir i have planned to work in iforex and fully decided to deposit 100 $ but problem in depositing i reached at the bank and bank staff told me to care and enquire fully before depositing now after enquiring i found that iforex is fraud and illegal so will you please help me by giving the sites which help me to trade legally and takes profit

Mr Kumar trading in forex(eur/usd etc) is illegal for resident indians(fully legal for NRIs) but you can trade in inr/usd pairs.Before you think too much try demo trading and see if you can make any demo money.Dont worry about RBI as they wont chase your 100 -- 1000$ deposit.Even if you are caught there is no jail but penalty(three times deposit amount).Try demo first….chances are that you will never need to open a live account….trading is hard…tc

RBI give useless logic behind that forex market so risky bcoz of that we band forex i asked RBI Indian market is not risky 2) many chances here affect foreign reserve but here RBI put restriction like no buddy transfer above 1 lac in 1 year but complete band on invest in forex this is not good

at least internatinal forex brker provide free technical data and software and we analysis market both technical and fundamental basis, but in India condition is different in my point of view SEBI NSE and BSE biggest fraud organisation they cheat with own citizen bcoz they are not force to broker provide open source software for technical analysis like metatrader many software available in indian market but they are take big subscription charges and they are locked

Hi Rajendran…
I’m based & working in Muscat Oman under status of NRI since last 4 yrs,can I open a forex trading account with markets.com a company based at CYPRUS.Further please advise me whether I can send the initial money of 100 $ through my Bank Muscat account in Omani Riyal to $.It will be legal or not?

Allow me to answer that for you. An NRI can trade in forex as much as he/she wants (unless your country of residence doesn’t permit you to). The RBI rules do not apply to us (I’m an NRI as well). However, you will have to shut shop when you become a resident of India again.

Also, I do not know about markets.com. I trade with AxiTrader. They’re an Australian outfit. The reason I trade with them is because unlike in Cyprus and most other places, the Australian security markets are very well regulated by the ASIC. No bucket shops there.

Why cant they allow forex trading? To let stock market only to enlarge which can be drained out as per fowl players will ? How many politicians or their relatives participate in stockmarkets ? Whose government policies and what for ?

Most probably, Expert traders or Indian institutions can bring back dollars in exponential profit level after participating in spot forex abroad as the market cannot be manipulated due to immense volume. Even after all those limitations and regulations what happened to Indian currency and majority retail participants in Indian stock markets ? Is it that some fowl players in Indian stock market gets all of retail participants money? How many Indian citizens have made something named profit consistently from Indian stock markets or commodity markets ? I think Instead of making FIIs invest and take back profit from India, Indian institutions are supposed to bring profit dollars to India with allowance to participate in spot forex trade abroad. Indian economy should not be based on FIIs generosity and play provision.

Perhaps Indian strategists blind expectation on shrinking market which can be whipsaw to FIIs would have been effective if FIIs or their supporters did not know to handle human brains and nervous system through interception.

iam saw a site in online this site is providing all types it’s Legal are Illigal Tell me and RBI acsepting are No in this Type Site BinaryOptions Trading and daytrading Mixed Site binary
any one clarify experts

and my hope is Legal because they are fully regulating AML(antimoneylaundering) and many security systems UK Site But in india online using Legal clarify and taxable income

Hello Usman,,,are you guys nuts? Why asking the same questions again and again? For a resident Indian, trading with HY markets is illegal. Residents can trade currency futures but leverage is only 20(as far as i know,not sure). If you really want to trade in global spot currrency market,open a demo account on etoro and start trading.If you manage to make any money on demo(atleast two months is required)start thinking about real trade,RBI blah blah etc. If you are a NRI, you can trade with HY markets OR any NRI cousin or friend can open an account in their name and you can trade that account.But first….demo….trading is hard….but not impossible..bye and tc

Why is that India has to come up with such complicated rules about forex trading , when online trading is done legally in India.. why is India broker be legal and foreign brokers be illegal.. i dont get it bcoz when india proclaims itself to have the best mind in the world and were are the Indian’s brain to bit the foreign brain in reality.. are we just fooling ourself that we are the best and when we cannot trade in forex… its really something to think about when we tell ourself that India is a brainer and when RBI keep such a rule regarding about forex trading…

RBI claims that its trying to help the Indian traders from losing their money in forex trading.Why RBI is not bothered about NRIs(not indians).?Its just like our helmet rule.Only the govt is bothered about the driver and not the passenger on bike.NRIs can trade any forex.Forex is considered more safer than share trading.If it becomes legal,more people would leave share trading and its not good for big share dealers who makes money from small share dealers

I’m relatively new to forex trading and looking for trusted forex brokers. Can you recommend any international Forex brokers which I can set up an accout? Also, can you tell me how forex trading is illegal in India?

Anything you are trading with NSE, BSE, MCX exchanges are safe. And NSE offers S&P Index futures (not in cash though). Also Trading in US stock for delivery purpose is legal in india. However it is illegal to take marginal trades in foriegn exchanges as per RBI rules.

I am working for a company in US, they have US citizenship, one of the partners wants me to do forex trading in US$ and GB Pound, now the question is I am working from India, I shall be trading for my company from here and shall be salaried for doing the trading, so is that legal or not.

I need to clarify one doubt with you please reply me.
My Trading Account is in CDEQUI company, they are providing NEST trading software.When i was reading your Marketcalls site,
I come to know about Metatrader. Can i use metatrader software to trade nifty or mcx
or forex with my trading account which is existing in CDEQUI.

recently rbi stopped my credit card from making transitions to international forex brokers i called bank customer care and asked for the reason they told me that the New Rbi governer passed new policies to stop forex transitions as many indians are doing it from past 1 year now is it possible for me to invest in any other way i earned so much using forex ,seems i should leave forex

Alpari and Admiral markets local offices in india only promoting trading with Indian Exchanges like NSE and MCX. However for residential indians they are not promoting to trade in international forex pairs. Guess they are in compliance with RBI guidelines.

RBI has made new rule so why blocking cards & accounts which have been used last year.
If they consider something illegal they should take action after circular has been passed, why do it for something which was done before circular was passed ??
Can a person move to court for this situation against RBI ??

Suppose If the bank account or credit card is closed by the concerned bank as per the RBI new rules, Is it possible to get a new bank account / credit card thru different bank? Or it will be a mark on the person?

You are not actually betting $10 in margin trading. If you leverage is x400 then actually you are betting 4000$ with 10$ in your hand. Thats how margin trading works! And you are very quickly to loose your money because of the leverage involved. Even your 1000$ worth of money will be fade just in a fraction of second.

Hi Naveen
Trading is going well , have you withdraw your profit any time. Is is simple with forex trading if you loose no problem, if you make profit no profit withdrwal max settlement is your 50% deposit return.
NOW 4XP closed worldwide. There are many frauds. Better to stick to Indian Mkts.

forex trading is ILLEGAL in both India & pakistan also-v.shameful but my brother is staying in Salzburg ; Austria where it is legal so can I trade thru’his a/c tho’im based in Mumbai ? Is it legal to trade thru’ an NRI A/C.? plj.clarify

Hi , I have invested in topoptions.com which seemed to be the best site in the business. I had deposited money through my HDFC International debit card. I have been trading since the past 8 months , and sometimes I withdraw amount as much as 300-400$ per week. What problems could I face ?

I have fully seen all the discussions…First thing, you must learn |How to make money in Forex..with leverages so high, you could lose a lot..i forex big cheaters…Now 4XP,Sunbird have closed down..We are well aware that it is high volatile market, you total investment could become zero in 2,3 transactions…so whenever you have time, try learning how to trade successfully..with differnet brokers..with their expert advice…with software..IN DEMO ACCOUNT…I found one strategy useful buy when the signal says to buy & sell the same currency immediately when you get sell signal…after hours, you can see upward/downward trend one side..close both the deals positive & nagative, and book the possible profit…always in micro account, which is 10 times , risk less…nothing is 100% for sure..Try to learn from Demo accounts who offer 1,000 USD not 10,000 USD….as maximum you would be investing is 1,000 |USD for learning actual trade.. you cannot make any profit with 100 USD investment…minimum you need 1,000 USD, for confident play…our government policy is always made for riches..not for middle class…you cheat govt for 1,000 crores..you could come on bail in 2 month..you cheat 100 dollars, you will permanently be in jail for years..I have never seen idiotic view of Govt…that Indians cannot keep not even a single USD in Paypal , it is auto transfered into indian rupees…the biggest joke is 1.35 USD in paypal transfer is accepted by many companies if you have to pay 1 USD..so much of fees..I am in online jobs…my money in Paypal get transferred immediate to INR & when I have to send USD 1.00 for key, for someware everymonth, it is not possible…I have left online jobs..why I have to bring |USD for a country who cannot allow to not even a single dollar transfer….the only legal way, if you are having friend/relative in western/US, or advanced countries, where country allow trade in Forex…Just ask them to open a account in their name, in broker’s site & transfer the fees of needed dollars ( say 1,000 ) …you operate that account …profit/loss you have understanding with him/her..the easiest way…don’t be greedy in forex market..trade micro lot( one tenth of standard lot)…learn how to set stop loss/take profit margin in MT4 platform…learn well with demo of USD 1K only…All the best…An unlucky Indian

I am doing forex trading with iFOREX fron Oct 2012. I have deposited money many times and withdraw also. I ask to my Account Officer about forex trading illegal in India, she replyed me we are working as per Indian Govt. norms. Shall I continue or stop?

i`m a forex trader. trading with oanda.com . i`m regularly withdrawing funds with my paypal account. the purpose code i mentioned was freelance journlasm. the statement was appearing in my bank account was just paypal. (not oanda). and i`m receiving big payments. there will be any problem with this ? because i have paid tax nearly 3000000 inr by mentioning paypal funds (freelance journalism) to Income tax. i know that the forex trading is not allowed in india with rbi regulations. but i have mastered fx trading. because i can`t waste my time with trading bse or nse. there will be any problem ?? please reply me

I also trade forex.RBI monitors all transcations in paypal.Its quite ulikely, they will track and trace a individual forex trader.Its illegal but everybody is doing it.I am a small scale trader and once i get bigger,I would seek the help of a NRI cousin or friend.Forex trading is legal for NRIs.Happy trading.

dear forex traders(traders who trade only international currency pairs)
today i would like to say one thing. many of you guys waiting for clear permission from RBI REGULATION for forex trading. it`s complete waste of time. try to trade the forex with peaceful. but don`t trade in india. trading in india is against to rbi regulations. always be positive. forget about rbi regulation. there are many countries giving permission in the scheme of investment immegration scheme for foreigners to trade the forex. i`m one the example. just feel the present rbi regulation in india as a holidays. holidays may be some years. but forget about it. dont confuse your subconcious mind by thinking about rbi regulations. forex trading to be fortune to us in this generation. i would only suggest that take advantage of it. trade the forex….trade the forex…in the regulated zone.

Sir right now one of my friends told me about this RBI’s action against FOREX. I am literally scared but still trading with XFOREX as my FX Broker.I am having around 1200$ in my A/c. I’ve no problem with my withdrawal request with my FX Broker.But one of the news from Indian Express told that-“A/c. will be sealed if anyone is found indulged in Forex trading”.But this FX Trading is banned from many times i think.Then also i have withdraw’d around 10000$ from my a/c. Still no action has been taken against me.Pls help whether i should continue with this or not ?

Dear Rajandran
I use to collect foreign currency notes and coins as a hobby and I have a collection of around 140 countries. I do not have bulk of any particular foreign currency/coins. I use to purchase / take / exchange it from ebay.in / friends , etc. IS THIS LEGAL ? OR I AM DOING SOMETHING ILLEGAL ? What is the govt rule for it ? Pl. reply
Regards
Rakesh

Thanks for your reply.
I further have a question that can I carry the above mentioned currency and stamps collection from Karnataka to New Delhi , where I am going to shift soon. Is there any problem during its movement on airport / railway station / etc. I police / security asks me about this and detains me for this, how to come out of such situation ?
Pl. clarify

I have a friend who is in Dubai(NRI). if i ask him to open a Forex account and deposit dinar and then i trade using his account. can i transfer profit from that account to india. is this legal or illegal

30 Lakhs in one financial year is quite a lot of money. REMEMBER ONE THING . AS A INTERNATIONAL FX TRADER WE ARE NOT SUPPOSED TO THINK 30 LAC INCOME TAX AS LOT………….DONT COMPARE WITH ALL OTHER THINGS…..COMPARE WITH ONLY FX WHICH IS 0.000000000000087548 PER 5 MIMUTES. THINK RICH WITH GUTSSSSSSSSSSSSSS

ONE THING I DONT UNDERSTAND ABOUT ALL THE GUYS IN THIS WEBITE. FORGET ABOUT REGULATIONS IN INDIA……WHEN ENTIRE WORLD IS FREE OF TRADING FX WHAT`S THE REASON TO WORRY ABOUT INDIAN REGULATIONS….THERE ARE MANY PAYMENTS AND WITHDRAWL OPTIONS FOR SMALL TRADERS ……..WHEN YOU INCREASE YOUR INVESTMENT CAPACITY EXAMPLE >>>>>>>>>10 STANDARD LOT FLY TO DUBAI WITH RESIDENCE VISA……TRADE AND SRAYIN INDIA THROUGH MT4……WHEN THERE IS ADVANCED FINANCIAL INSTRUMENTS LIKE FX WHY YOU WASTE TIME WITH ALL FUTURES MARKETS AND CFD`S……

Dear Rajandran,
Thanks for your valuable informations, surely they will be eye-opener to many. kindly do carry on
N ow i am doing a trading with a singapore based company by name “Trading Plus”. I came to know this company through my friend. while i was trading, i lost huge amount of money. their method is completely different, we have to buy the commodities, for every 30 minutes they put the result. it is like lottery. after losing big money, i searched in the net about that company. but i didnt find such a company. Do you have any idea about that company and its credibility? Any body can share their knowledge regarding that company.
Thank you in advance for your help

YES ! its most unfortunate that forex trading is illegal in countries like India & pakistan also ,while its legal evn in a small country like Singapore & U.A.E.Our govt. wants only the politicians to prosper ; however I think if u have an NRI A/C; than its legal ,tho’ im not sure.

Very interesting discussions on this forum. Mr Rajandra, How does the below sound for a solution:
@Richa, @Anindita @Mani awaiting your comments on this:
1) I have my relative in Dubai. He has agreed to open FX account in his name. So i guess I will be starting with $10,000 with a reputed FSA regulated broker, Say Alpari.
2) I pay him Indian Rupees when he comes to India. He transfers equivalent USD from his bank account in Dubai to the FX broker
3) I get the access of MT4 and trade and then he regularly gives the money to me.
4) After some time:
1. Float offshore LLC in Dubai.
2. Open Trading account on the name of LLC.
3. Open a branch office/Proprietorship in India and provide trading services to LLC.
The LLC has a nominee director so the management of the LLC remains abroad. Hence LLC is not taxed in India. Jurisdiction to be considered is Dubai.

Hi Rajendran, I read your reply on some blog that there are legal possibilities for NRIs to trade in Forex. NRIs can trade in forex freely once they reside outside India. It is only when they return that the problem starts.

Does anyone have a solution? There is much discussion what and what not RBI is saying, and why they are saying it. The fact is that trading in Forex in India in pairs other than USDINR, GBPINR, EURINR, JPYINR is ILLEGAL. RBI’s wordings in their circulars may not use the exact words but when they catch you, they’ll whip you. Their words are very general and to be used as they deem fit.

YOU DO NOT WANT TO MESS WITH THEM.

I currently have an international bank account in Singapore. But I am still not using it for trading as the IT rules are getting very strict and internationally info is being shared more and more freely now.

So is there anyone here who is doing it LEGALLY? Please let me know how.

PART I
I had already considered the possibility of using the relative angle. But that is the last resort because getting back the money into the country will be complicated. Here’s why:

1. You’ll make money. If you make a little (lets says 2-3 lakhs) and it is transferred to your bank account as gift from your relative, no problem. You pay the gift tax and go on your way.

2. If you make bigger money in a year remitting it to yourself gets a little more complicated. How will you transfer it back to yourself? Part remittance and part cash carried by hand maybe is the solution.

3. A much larger sum will require other ways like use of your relative’s debit card in India to withdraw money etc. Possible? How often?

4. I hope you trust your relative a lot. And hope they live up to that trust when the sums become very large (Presuming you are a good enough trader to make large sums of money).

DO NOTE:
Please do not think RBI and Income Tax people are fools. They can entangle you in a mess that’ll leave you on your knees and with folded hands. Ask anyone who has gotten on their wrong side and they will vouch for what I am saying. So while we may try our luck, in the long run it is not worth testing it.

PART II
About you starting a company abroad. this has already been explored by me as well. I hired a CA to find loopholes in the RBI rules. This is one possible hole. But is it easy? Haha……….. read on:

1. Opening an LLC in Dubai or a Pte Ltd co in Singapore is easy. But there are many things to keep in mind. Especially the part of a Resident Director. In Singapore the minimum charge for you to hire one is SGD 3000 annually. Plus you have to hire a Company Secretary annually paying about 500-1000 sgd. Plus an accounting firm annually costing SGD 500-1000. Plus incorporation charges of about 800 sgd. Plus you will need a bank account. For a company the minimum bank balance is about 8000 sgd above. So think of an initial start up amount of atleast SGD 13000+. Much of the charges you will pay will be a recurring charges (like the director and Com Sec and local registered address etc). I am sure there are many known and hidden costs like these in Dubai as well.

After this you need trading capital.

2. If you are trading with your own money in Singapore you don’t require a Capital Market Services License from Monetary Authority of Singapore. But you may require licensing in Dubai for a company to trade in Forex. So not only will you have to pay a lawyer to figure out if you need a license, you will also need to pay this lawyer to arrange the license if needed. There will also be requirements that you may need to fulfill for this license. Plus fees, plus renewal. Keep that in mind.

4. If imagine you do manage to open a company then read below. While you may not trade in forex involving the INR, you will be trading in ‘non-deliverable trades involving foreign currency’. Forex is mostly CFDs that are non-deliverable in nature.
Read Q9 of RBI circular using link posted above. It says: An overseas entity, having direct or indirect equity participation by an Indian party, shall not offer financial products linked to Indian Rupee (e.g. non-deliverable trades involving foreign currency, rupee exchange rates, stock indices linked to Indian market, etc.) without the specific approval of the Reserve Bank. Any incidence of such product facilitation would be treated as a contravention of the extant FEMA regulations and would consequently attract action under the relevant provisions of FEMA, 1999

Do remember that most Indian Government bodies like to keep the wording loose so that it covers a lot of ground and is open to interpretation, in case they wish to use it.

5. If you trade in commodities like Gold, Silver and WTI, you might have to take permission from the FMC. This information is there in the same link. There is also an email account link so you could mail them as well.

6. Forgot to add one more point. If you open a company with only business being forex and sharetrading and become its director, that too could have repercussions as you will be a resident Indian. Maybe you could be a shareholder and get away with it (but I’m not too sure about that). In case of an enquiry ever, questions will be raised and they will need to be answered. One way to circumvent this is to have an NRI relative as the director and shareholder (God bless our hardworking NRI relatives). But then how do you bring money home?

Like I have mentioned before, the RBI and IT are not to be messed with. I hope this post was helpful to all. Since I am not in India if any of you could consult with a good Indian CA like I did (paid consultation) and ask him the questions/points I have raised it would be most beneficial. I could do with a second opinion on the company angle. So please do consult and let me know.

(P.S. Since I am not in India yet, I could open a company as an NRI and keep the shares when I return. But I am worried about investing in Foreign Currency as worded in RBI circulars).

Part III
Use my existing savings account in Singapore to continue trading when I become an Indian resident. I don’t remit money back home, simply use my Debit card. No one is wiser in India. This route has no problem. Except now that India and Singapore/Dubai/any country has started exchanging information. HSBC recently sent India a list. Information will flow freely now. Sooner or later this information will reach RBI. When you are found out it becomes a crime under i) RBI ii) RBI’s Economic Offences Wing (which is basically the police) iii) Income Tax evasion as you are a resident and haven’t paid tax.

That said, please consult a CA and let me know soon. Rajandran I am hoping you could shed more light/info using professional services given what we all have shared here.

Richa.

P.S. Everybody, there is no point abusing the RBI and arguing why they have this rule. The fact is that they have it. Lets live with it and try to find a solution. All the best!

Hi Richa, a friend of mine received a letter from the RBI questioning a transaction of 150 USD towards eToro. What do you think will be the extent of the investigation and what do you think will be the punishment for such an offence if they deem it has occurred?

However, am thinking of this. Open a legal offshore company, there are many viable location as said…Singapore, Dubai etc. Then get capital (legally) to invest. After you make profit, pay yourself salary or consulting fee as director or employee of the company…pay taxes as needed per the rules.

I will be checking on the same with a CA on this. What are your initial thoughts, do you see any issues/ violation with this approach

I had written….NRIs can trade in forex freely once they reside outside India. It is only when they return that the problem starts……..

If NRI return to India and become Resident Indian, NRI account needs to shut down. RFC account can be opened. Foreign Savings A/C can remain active but Resident Indian cannot trade in Forex, so any trading using this bank account is not permitted.

Hi,
One question:
Does the Income Tax authorities in India have the legal right to question the source of income earned abroad for an NRI (assuming the NRI stays in country which has a DTAA arrangement in India). More specifically Singapore or Dubai or Australia.
Like for Forex, countries like Dubai and Singapore don’t charge any income taxes. So when the NRI remits the funds inwards to India to his blood relatives then is he answerable to RBI/IT authorities?

I AM INTERESTED IN BINARY OPTIONS TRADING. I HAVE AN A/C WITH HDFC BANK, MUMBAI AND I ALSO HAVE A CREDIT CARD ISSUED BY THEM. HOWEVER, I AM UNABLE TO FUND BROKER A/C. SINCE ACCORDING TO HDFC, IT IS AN ILLEGAL MERCHANT SITE. I DO HAVE A PAYPAL A/C

PLS REPLY ON MY EMAIL WITH WHICH BINARY OPTIONS BROKER CAN I OPEN AN A/C THROUGH PAYPAL AND TRANSFER WITHDRAWALS IN PAYPAL A/C

Mr. Rajendra ,
If RBI says that individuals can’t trade Forex or Binary options. Then how come no one is stopped till now. According to my study, the amount of traders arrested due to this trading is 0 [In 2013].
Some traders were arrested but for money laundering , etc. If retail traders can’t trade Forex and binary option then sir please tell me Can corporation be allowed to trade? If yes then how are corporations/firms founded . Reply Fast.

I can say only one thing after all the above explaination if you still wanna do it do it at your own risk.
Tommorow if anything happens or you end at SCAM no Indian regulatory bodies like SEBI/RBI will come to help you out.

Can you be very clear on what action the government of India takes on investing in Forex, it seems highly doubtful from the number of different firms that are operating freely here. in addition to this i have been searching for the exact sections under which it is illegal and cannot find them. why doesnt the indian government ban coke and pepsi and mc donalds in india, they are useless things that are draining the economy.

so what will happen if I invest in Forex, who has been arrested in India till date for trading in Forex. what are the exact sections that i will face for example IPC etc etc …? please tell me

You could be fined under FEMA rules.As far as I know there would be no jail but heavy fine(probably three times your investment money).I strongly suggest you try a demo account and see if you can make money in forex.If successful invest a small through a NRI friend or cousin.Success in demo account does not gurantee success in real account.Forex is not easy and could take lot of time to master.Take the NRI route as its legally safe.If you can master it your laptop would act like a money printing machine.Keep in mind,forex is not easy.

if someone open forex account with fake name and deposit and withdraw with third party transfer system such as neteller. and did not upload any real id. then if rbi caught you but they cannot prove that forex trading is done by you

Hello traders,
I know that many Indians are trading forex(International),but some of them have problems
to withdraw money in India. Well I have a trick to safely get the money to Indian bank accounts
But still I need your suggestions.
First of all open an offshore bank account and withdraw any profits to that account,
Later open an project in crowdfunding sites where you can get donations for your project.
Fund your own project and release the donations to your Indian bank account.
In you bank statement, it will appear as donations received for the project.
Is it okay to do so?
Any help will be appreciated.

hello sir,am from india but now am living in southafrica,can i do forex trading here, i have bank acc and residence permit.and very soon i come back to india.how i manage my accounts from india.if i continue that broker in india to do trading is any problem.

Sir,
Well, read a lot about about the illegality of Forex trading in India. But don’t you think RBI should give a proper reason for classifying it as illegal. Or is there something I am unaware of? What according to RBI makes Forex trading illegal?
thank you.

I talked to Alpari customer support and they told me that they have closed Alpari India and don’t provide USD/INR pair any more. Could you please suggest me some other genuine broker for this in India which offer Forex trading. I will be thankful to you.

Can any of you tell me good regulated brokers….I have come across a few like Onada and Alpari….I would also like to know about WhoTrades.com….Seems legit since its a subsidiary of Finam.ru but I dont know how far the representatives are legit.

Is it possible that I give my friend some money to set up a Forex account from UK? And then I trade on it, sitting in India. That way I am not doing any online transfer of funds from here.
Any way to do that?

my friend was lured for forex trading in Dec 2013 and directly submitted money through moneybookers using his banks credit card. he has received a big letter from them asking about the nature and purpose of the transactions within 7 days. If reply is not satisfactory or involved in forex trading then international credit limit will be zeroised on card and such transactions will be reported and action will be taken as deemed fit.

Trasaction was involving only $100. Since Jan 2014 he has not done any currency trading as he found out its illegal in india. Please let me know what actions they can take against him and what are his options against those actions? What to answer the bank? and what kind of punishment he can face?

I TRADE FOREX LEGALLY SITTING IN INDIA…. open a shelf company in mauritius for 3oo dollars which can be done with few phone calls and a internet connection . then you can ask the consultant for an offshore bank account linked to your shelf company. now you can transfer funds from indian bank accounts to your offshore bank account and the other way round. The best part is, in mauritius you dont have to pay taxes ,all you have to do is show your a alien and india you dont have to worry about taxes because u never earned the income in this country. but you have to disclose your company and your offshore account details to avoid legal issues

RBI has said that trading in forex is illegal if anyone uses Indian currency to convert to Foreign Currency and then trading.

This is alright. But RBI has said that a company can trade in forex with the “free dollars” that the company earned as a profit through overseas profit and the company can trade in any types of pair not only XYZ / INR This is also alright.

So it is clear RBI is banning forex just to save Indians from being scammed by forex brokers and to prevent outflow of INR to foreign countries. This is alright.

But there are ways to trade forex without investing a single paisa. There are many foreign brokers who give no deposit bonus. Searching on Google with forex no deposit bonus gives a huge list. And in order to withdraw money from these brokers one need not require to deposit a single paisa.

Now in this case, there is no outflow of INR but inflow of other currencies. Also see that trading in this way does not contradict with RBI rules. This is due to the fact that you are not investing any money here. You are trading with free dollars.

So where is the problem in trading in this way ?

Also can anyone give me a list ( may be small ) who supports XYZ / INR pair and trading with whom will be perfectly legal ? Alpari India has closed in India. So please tell me some Indian brokers.

Yes of course it’s not a free money. And that no-deposit-bonus cannot be withdrawn. But if one has gained enough skills from demo trading and if he/she successfully makes profit from that no-deposit-bonus, he/she can withdraw that profit. But only after a certain number of buy/sell trades as per the broker.

I know lot of ppl loose money to such foreign companies in forex trading.

But please let me know if anyone is trading in US E-mini S&P500 futures here?
Is it legal to get the account funded from a friend residing in US to trade futures?
currently am considering opening account with Interactive brokers or optionExpress.

Please let me know if any one from india is trading US futures & options at all ?

There is one prop trading firm based outside india, which is recruiting traders all over the world. One doesn’t need to deposit capital; however, needs to pay a minimal enrollment fee. Once enrolled, they have us to trade on demo MT4 accounts and trades are copied to their server through their EA (Expert Adviser). Technically, it’s genuine. Now, the trader here in India is just giving trade signal and getting paid dollars for each pip he/she has gained. Can you please tell me whether it’s legal or illegal?

i withdraw only 100 usd via axis bank..the bank is asking me abt. the sorce of the funds. they ask whether i send this funds to moneybookers from my a/c…i did not give them clarification.what will happen next.plz tell me.

I came to know about a website named http://www.smctradeonline.com . SMC Global Securities claims to be a Trading cum Clearing Member of all the exchanges namely NSE, BSE, MCX-SX & USE for the currency segment. Can you please confirm if I can trade forex online in the above website legally.

HI friends ,
don’t arguement about forex trading is legal or illegal
deposit to your trading ac all possible ways and trade freely without fear
all are confusing to all. go and trade for ever don’t wast time like this blogs
rbi will not kill you if u make profit and rbi not give money if u loss

ONLY ONCE I HAD SENT $100 FOR FOREX TRADING THRO’ HDFC BANK CREDIT CARD 1 YEAR BACK.I GOT A WARNING LETTER FROM BANK AND RBI THAT, IT IS ILLIGAL AS PER FEMA AND IF I REPEAT IT, LEGAL ACTION WILL BE INTIATED..
SO, I STOPED IT AND INSTEAD DOING CURRENCY TRADING THRO” MY INDIAN STOCK BROKER WHICH IS LEGALY ALLOWED..
All of you Pl make a note of it to avoid legal action
DR. ANAND

They are a legal venue to trade but for Indian Retail traders it is illegal to trade in overseas markets even if it involves USDINR and Nifty (because they CFD instrument i.e Contract for Difference) not the one actually trading in NSE/BSE or any other exchange.

I have gone through your posts. I have one question as you are doing great on this please answer me if you have it.

My Profile: I am Indian Citizen; I was in London during 2009 for my study. I know How to Trade in FX Market as I did finish my study in Finance only.

Trading FX in India and sending money as margin from India for such purpose is illegal. I am convinced on this.

Now My Question is:

1) I have nice circle of friends there; WHAT IF I CONVINCED THEM TO BECOME INVESTOR FOR ME & DEPOSIT THEIR MONEY IN THEIR FX TRADING ACCOUNT; & THEN I TRADE THOSE ACCOUNT FROM HERE IN INDIA AS FUND MANAGER BY GETTING THEIR PERMISSION; AND WHEN I GENERATE REVENUE FOR THEM THEY GIVE ME MY SHARE FROM IT AND SEND ME TO MY INDIAN BANK ACCOUNT AND I AM READY TO PAY TEXT (what ever income i earned from their as an outsourcing fund manager) ON THAT…………. IS THIS GOING TO BE PERMITTED TO ME? AS I AM DOING WORK AS JUST AN OUTSOURCING FUND MANAGER……..& like any other outsourcing business i just provide them my services only and i am not involved in any fund depositing and any acts and also i am ready to pay Income Tax on what ever I will Earn from my Job ?

If you know the answer then pls let me know……any else also pls let me know if you have any inputs in this…..